BRIDG Is Bringing Advanced Technologies To Market
Find out more about BRIDG, one of our 10 Tech Leaders featured in this month's Issue of Orlando magazine.
BRIDG advocates for developing advanced technologies and bringing them to market in Orlando.
Photos courtesy of BRIDG
About 20 minutes from Kissimmee’s tourism center sit two sleek, modern buildings on 500 acres of prime real estate. Inside, a remarkable, if not small, group of people works toward making the United States a leader once again in microelectronics manufacturing.
It’s a tall mountain to scale but a renewed commitment to be a leading chipmaker is being fueled by serious money and insightful planning.
That’s where BRIDG comes in. Short for Bridging the Innovation Development Gap, BRIDG is a not-for-profit, public/private partnership whose mission is to serve as a center for developing and bringing to market advanced technologies.“We are a small organization. We’re not going to fix everything, but we can be a resource and serve as a hub for this region, to help diversify its economy, and for the nation, to help in the critical need for this industry,” says Gloria LeQuang, BRIDG’s vice president of marketing and communications.
Those two buildings are among the first of many expected to populate Osceola County’s master-planned technology campus, NeoCity. BRIDG, with fewer than 10 employees, and NeoCity share a singular goal, brought to life by partnerships in government, private industry and academia.
BRIDG received a 10-year, $160 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
The money funding these visions is coming in the form of grants and contracts:
- In 2022, a coalition led by the Osceola County Board of County Commissioners was awarded $50.8 million through the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge.
- Last November, Osceola County was awarded a five-year Department of Defense contract with an initial allocation of $3.65 million and a ceiling of $120 million. The contract offers options for an additional $169 million.
- In January, the U.S. National Science Foundation selected Central Florida as one of its 10 inaugural NSF Regional Innovation Engines and will receive up to $15 million over the next two years. With progress, the award could swell to $160 million over 10 years.
BRIDG’s founding partners are Osceola County, the Florida High-Tech Corridor and the University of Central Florida. It’s headed by Dr. John Allgair, chief technology officer and interim president.
The county owns the two buildings, with BRIDG owning most of the millions of dollars’ worth of equipment within and Minnesota-based Sky-Water operating the fabrication facility.
“What BRIDG is doing with our partners is really trying to home in on what is going to make a difference for our region, for the industry, so that we may reclaim some of the market share,” LeQuang says.
